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Tuesday, June 18, 2019

TwoOhSix Recap: 2019 Seattle International Film Festival



Twenty five festival days, Thirty eight movies, four interviews, and countless kernels of popcorn. Covering my home town film festival is always a major highlight of the year. Being immersed in film, film fans, and film makers is an experience well worth the late nights, popcorn dinners, and utter exhaustion by the time it's all said and done.

Ben Kasulke, Bob Byington, Kaley Wheless, Jake Macapagal, and Olivia Loveridge
Film maker interviews are one of my favorite parts of covering film festivals and the group of people I talked to this year were all super fun to talk to. What I love most is the creative energy and enthusiasm they each bring to the table which makes it easy to have great conversations about their films.


The movie posters above, in alphabetical order, are the ten films that stood out the most. Below, I have ranked this list in descending order down to my number one favorite film of this year's festival. So many good movies, it was hard to rank them but here goes. After the list you will see my favorites in individual categories.
  1. In Fabric
  2. The Art of Self Defense
  3. Official Secrets
  4. Greener Grass
  5. Here Comes Hell
  6. Watch list (Maria)
  7. Banana Split
  8. The Legend of the Stardust Brothers
  9. House of Hummingbird
  10. Top End Wedding

Performance: Park Ji-hu / House of Hummingbird
This young woman absolutely killed it playing a middle school aged girl who is dealing with all the difficulties of being that age and then some. Her strength is in the subtleties she is able to project during the quieter and more introspective moments of the film.

On Screen Duo: Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe / Greener Grass
These two ladies wrote, directed, and starred in this film together and every moment of the movie is filled with a zany brand of humor that is just unbelievably hilarious. From moment to moment you never knew what they were going to do next and it was always the craziest thing you never would have thought of.

Director: David Shields / Lynch: A History
This is creative documentary story telling at its finest as David Shields uses footage and clips from all across every form of media to build a narrative that honors an athlete while highlighting the struggles that Lynch took upon himself in the fight for social justice and human rights.

Female Directors:
Special shout out to all the female film makers of movies I watched during the festival with links to their respective IMDB pages.

Documentary: Lynch: A History / Directed by David Shields
This documentary is so much more than a football career highlight reel and should be essential viewing for anyone who has ever wanted to look under the hoodie in hopes of catching a glimpse of the gratitude behind the Beast Mode brand and all the flashy attitude.

Narrative Feature: Top End Wedding / Directed by Wayne Blair
Top End Wedding is one of the most fun and satisfying movie going experiences I have had in quite some time. It is enjoyable, it is likable, it is emotional, and it just makes you feel good about life. Yes, I had tears during the movie, but they were the happiest of happy tears and it was wonderful.



I put these review links in alphabetical order because I couldn't possible rank them all.

Thank you for following along during this year's festival and please take a look at the other festivals and events that I cover over the course of the year.





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